Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano finally *fought* (can you call that a fight?), and it went exactly as everyone expected.
On Saturday night, Rousey made quick work of Carano, submitting her in 17 seconds with her patented armbar. Before that, Mike Perry beat the brakes off an old Nate Diaz, and Francis Ngannou sent poor Philipe Lins to the shadow realm with his trademark power. While it’s still unclear if MVP’s first MMA event delivered the views it promised, their maiden voyage into the cage did bring
some highlights and some lowlights. Let’s discuss them all.
1. What’s your quick review of Rousey vs. Carano and MVP MMA 1?
Heck: I had a pretty good time watching, but people be real big mad.
Lee: Dana White, Hunter Campbell, and the rest of the UFC crew can sleep easy.
Martin: MVP MMA has a lot of work to do if this promotion is going to avoid being one-and-done.
Meshew: I had fun, but there were a lot of things I hope they work on if this is not a one-off.
2. What was the point of Ronda vs. Gina?
Heck: I ask this question with every bit of realness in my soul: Who expected anything different?
We know what this was. This was the Ronda Rousey farewell from MMA she always wanted, and she was given a platform to do it in a fight that was a squash match from the jump. Gina Carano had no chance, the world knew she had no chance, and even if Rousey slipped on a banana peel and further injured herself, Carano still would’ve lost emphatically. Good for Carano for getting on a journey to health and a longer life. Losing 100 pounds is incredible, and she should be proud of that.
I’m actually quite surprised by the reaction to the fight because the literal second it was announced, this was the result. Ronda got the good ending — for her, anyway, as she said some pretty crappy things in the build — and got a payday, while Carano also got a payday. This fight was just there for me because the result was obvious, while the Perry-Diaz fight was the headliner in my eyes.
Lee: Reputation rehab.
Rousey and Carano are always going to have their detractors, but the build-up to their fight—as dully cordial as it was at times—gave them plenty of time to speak their mind and do their best to rewrite their histories. For the most part, I think it worked.
For Rousey, it was simply a matter of amplifying an already rock-solid legacy while firing off some parting shots at a swath of rivals, including the UFC, TKO, and Kayla Harrison; for Carano, enough time had passed since her embarrassing dismissal from the Star Wars franchise for her to present herself as a sympathetic figure, one worthy of redemption for fans inclined to forgive. No matter the result, Saturday night was treated like a triumph for both women, who can now boast they went out on a high note no one ever expected to hear.
Martin: Nostalgia. Pure and simple.
It doesn’t exactly speak volumes about where MMA is currently if 39-year-old Ronda Rousey — off two brutal knockout losses and a decade away from the sport — facing 44-year-old Gina Carano — who hadn’t fought in 17 years — was accepted as possibly the biggest fight in 2026. But that’s exactly what lured everybody to this event, including Netflix, who were footing the bill and putting the card on the largest streaming platform on Earth.
The result itself was wildly predictable, and anyone who thought otherwise was fooling themselves. Rousey may not be a world champion-level fighter anymore, but she’s still got a unique skill set that allows her to toss overmatched competition to the ground and submit them with her signature armbar. Carano found that out the hard way on Saturday night.
Rousey likely celebrates this victory as if she just conquered the combat sports world all over again, and she can now retire on a win rather than two brutal losses. That’s fine, but anybody who knows the sport recognizes she was facing a completely overmatched opponent, and Rousey wouldn’t have nearly as much success going against somebody like Kayla Harrison or Cris Cyborg.
As for Carano, she got in remarkable shape for this fight after her acting career tanked, and she has no reason to feel bad about her performance. It was written in the stars that she was destined to get armbarred, but it was fun having her back, if only for one night.
Meshew: Before the fight, I was convinced that this whole thing was a chance for Ronda to redo the end of her career in a way she was happy with, and Gina simply wanted to be famous again. And that’s exactly what happened with the very anticlimactic 17 seconds that technically constitutes a fight. But even still, I’m shocked at how dirty it felt once it was all said and done.
While I was deeply cynical about the larger motivations at play here, I guess I had some naive hope that, whatever the driving forces, there still might be some semblance of dignity to the whole thing. Nope. Not even a little bit.
Ronda ran Carano over in seconds, earning the most meaningless win of her career and getting the completely fabricated fairytale ending that she wanted for herself. Rousey’s had one of the most ignominious endings to an MMA career ever, and she’s never been able to reckon with that, largely because she’s never reckoned with her own culpability in why that happened. So, instead, she orchestrated this absurdist vanity project to feel better about herself. Ultimately, there’s no harm in that, but it felt like watching an adult dunk on an eight-year-old and then do a victory dance.
Carano, meanwhile, could not have cared less about the entire affair. She did nothing to help promote this event by words or action, other than being the once-upon-a-time name on the other side of Rousey. She was not disinterested, but she was also not interesting at all, and appeared completely unbothered by her inability to provide even a whisper of resistance. Which makes sense because she didn’t care about this fight.
Carano was transparently in this as an audition for Hollywood, a big billboard saying, “Please hire me back, I won’t say anything you don’t like this time.” But like Rousey, Carano was also completely unwilling to accept that maybe she wasn’t blameless in what happened, and so any redemption arc is also a fairytale. But she got in shape, got to meet some Netflix execs and be famous again, and maybe one day she can get back to the solid career she threw away by not realizing she actually is not a great actress.
To be clear, I don’t wish ill on Rousey or Carano. They are human beings, and people are imperfect. But I had hoped that through the course of all this and simply aging and maturing, they might have learned some lessons and grown as people, but that was not to be. Instead of redemption, we were given vapid self-congratulation.
But hey, nobody got hurt, and we had some fun, I guess.
3. Did Francis Ngannou or Mike Perry gain anything from Saturday night?
Heck: Technically, they both gained something, but Perry gained the most of probably anybody on the entire card.
I’m not going to mince words, Perry beat the brakes off of Nate Diaz. Outside of a few Diaz jabs, this fight was one-way traffic the whole way, and Mike Beltran probably could’ve stopped it before the second round ended. It was a bloodbath and the biggest MMA win of Perry’s career by a lot.
For some reason unknown to me, MVP seems excited about running this one back, and I ask, simply, why? Diaz was in shape, he took it seriously, he seemed ready to go, and he got battered. So, please, Nakisa and Jake — don’t book the rematch, but you probably will, and that’s good for Perry because he’ll make a good chunk of money doing the same thing, maybe even worse the second time.
But if they wisely don’t book the rematch, Perry can be one of the promotional faces. He’s still in his 30’s, more people now know him, he’s got the gift of gab, and he’s never in a boring fight. This was a huge night for him.
Lee: Every time Ngannou steps into the cage, he reminds us why he’s a one-of-one attraction. No matter who he fights, just by going in there and doing Francis things, he’s maintaining the value of his stock. He remains one of MMA’s true A-sides, and there’s value to that.
Perry enjoyed a passing of the torch (blunt?) moment, even if there are still plenty of Diaz fans out there who would prefer referees let him go full Randy Marsh. When it comes to down-to-earth, no-nonsense standup sluggers, Perry has to be considered the face of that now, if he wasn’t already. You can’t put a price on that.
Martin: It’s actually pretty remarkable how Mike Perry has created a successful second act for himself after he was a mid-card welterweight in the UFC. Dominating Nate Diaz for two rounds and cutting him up so bad that even Diaz couldn’t complain about the stoppage was pretty stunning.
Add that to Perry’s reinvention as the “King of Violence” in BKFC, and he’s one of the rarest fighters out there who found far more success and became a bigger star after leaving the UFC. Also, because Perry is still only 34 years old, he’s got a lot of mileage left on his tires, and there are going to be a lot of options awaiting him now. Perry is a proven commodity and a draw now, and that’s a powerful weapon to carry into any future negotiation.
Meshew: Paychecks. They both got paychecks.
4. Aside from the big three fights, did anything else stand out?
Heck: Yeah: The rest of the North American MMA watching world now knows why Salahdine Parnasse is the freaking man!
For all of the folks who were not overly kind about the MVP MMA matchmaking for this card, this was actually done perfectly. Kenneth Cross is no slouch and a fun fighter, and Parnasse matched up with him perfectly to steal the show. Parnasse not only was he (cough) MVP of the card, he was the MVP of the night in MMA.
And now what?
I said this moments after the stoppage: If MVP is going to keep doing the MMA thing, Parnasse needs to be their first long-term signing. Put the promotional, let ’s-build-a-star muscle behind him.
Lee: I hate to say it, but MVP MMA might have something in Namo Fazil.
It’s probably too early to make such a bold proclamation as this, but there is some Dillon Danis potential here (let me finish!). He doesn’t have Danis’ sociopathic lack of self-awareness and disdain for decorum, but he is definitely willing to put himself out there and punch well above his weight class. The man is feuding with Arman Tsarukyan of all people, and if My Best Friend Mike Heck’s fantasy booking comes to reality, they’ll meet on the RAF mats sooner rather than later.
Fazil’s fight wasn’t even bad as far as slopfests go, and most importantly, he won. Bottom line: Millions more people know Fazil’s name after this week.
Martin: Robelis Despaigne should be celebrating today, because not only did he pick up the biggest win of his MMA career, but he may have put himself in a position to battle Francis Ngannou in his next fight. That’s a pretty startling 180-degree turn from losing back-to-back fights in the UFC and getting bounced off the roster.
Much like Perry did with BKFC, Despaigne put together an impressive highlight reel outside the UFC with his devastating run through Karate Combat, which included his stomach-churning knockout over Sam Alvey that’s still a little tough to watch to this day. Now beating the 2026 version of dos Santos isn’t the same as knocking him out during the prime of his career when he was champion or a top contender in the UFC, but name recognition matters, and Despaigne now gets to tout that win on his resume. It looks a hell of a lot better than his last loss in a decision to Austen Lane!
Also, because heavyweight is a barren wasteland currently, Despaigne might actually be the only real option for Ngannou if he’s going to stick around MMA rather than seeking out another boxing match.
Meshew: I love Salahdine Parnasse like a member of my own family. All that man wants to do is hit people as hard as he can, and that rules.
Also, Saturday may have been the perfect encapsulation of Mauro Renallo as an announcer: simultaneously the best and the worst. Just listen to this call.
The man really blurs the line between art and “Are you kidding, man?”
5. Who was the biggest loser of the night?
Heck: Herb Dean, and this isn’t the first time I’ve had to use his name in this spot.
Dean was horrible in the closing moments of what was the best fight of the card between Adriano Moraes and Phumi Nkuta. You all know what happened: Moraes locked in the submission, the third round ended, Moraes didn’t release the hold, Nkuta appeared to possibly go out four to five seconds after the fight officially ended, and it was super weird.
Then, Dean and what looked like the entire West Coast officiating community came together to look at the replay, and they all got it wrong. How in the blue hell is this possible in 2026? Please, give me an answer that won’t make my head explode. This one MVP can run back for sure, and it’ll be awesome.
Let me also add that he almost got Philipe Lins put on another planet. Luckily, Francis Ngannou had mercy. It’s not going to improve or get better. It’s a bummer.
Lee: Conor McGregor, kind of?
Look, McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2 for International Fight Week was one of the worst-kept secrets in the business, and many speculated the announcement would drop Saturday to steal some of MVP MMA’s thunder. Like clockwork, Dana White popped up around the time of Ngannou’s walkout to break the news.
This is where we are? Announcing the return of your biggest box office draw on a lifeless Instagram Live stream? Sure, this drew some attention away from Netflix, but we’re always going to remember that White’s timing revolved around interfering with another promotion’s show. Did the McGregor announcement take away from MVP MMA, or was it the other way around?
McGregor buzz will grow as we approach July, but right now, this was a reminder that he’s just a pawn in the UFC’s greater game.
Martin: Hear me out when I say Nate Diaz, but not because he had a bad night against Mike Perry.
Well, of course, losing is part of that, but Diaz versus Perry was just about the only fight on that MVP MMA main card that looked really competitive before the event started. If Perry had lost to Diaz, the reaction would have been similar because just about everybody expected those two to engage in a bloody war, and that’s exactly what unfolded.
There’s really no shame that Diaz lost that fight. It’s what he lost because he chose to fight Perry on Saturday night that really costs him here, and that’s missing out on a trilogy against Conor McGregor in the UFC.
Diaz stated rather emphatically that he wasn’t interested in being part of McGregor’s “motherf*cking comeback story” as the Irish superstar returned to action for the first time in five years after recovering from a gruesome broken leg. But McGregor made his comeback official on Saturday with his next fight against Max Holloway booked for July.
That could have been Diaz, and while I’m sure he doesn’t care one bit that he’s missing out on the McGregor trilogy, that was the perfect fight to make for both of them, and it’s not happening.
Meshew: This may not be a popular opinion, but I had issues with most of the production choices from MVP. The pacing was bad, the post-fight presser took far too long, and almost every person involved in a broadcast role would not be someone I’d have chosen. Jon Jones brought nothing to the show other than to tease a fight that can never happen. Cain Velasquez was never a wordsmith to begin with. Someone at some point has to tell Mauro to take 20 percent off.
Jake Paul says he’s here to disrupt the industry, and then trotted out the same 12 people that are on all the big non-UFC shows. There’s a wide world of 8 billion people out there. Get some new blood.
6. What comes next for MVP MMA? Is this the end, or just the beginning?
Heck: It’s impossible to answer this with confidence without seeing the numbers. Anything less than 9 million viewers is an absolute disaster. The whole world knew this was happening and how they could watch it.
I’ll say it’s just the beginning for now, but they have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to improve upon. The bad taste of the Rousey fight isn’t going away any time soon, even though the outcome was so obvious. Is there a chunk of people just hating on stuff just because it’s cool and hip? Absolutely. But were there glaring complaints from all walks of MMA life about the card — more so, the production and the broadcast? There sure were. Just go through Twitter and see how it’s impossible to ignore. The pacing was absolutely horrible on the main card. There was a little over 20 minutes of actual fighting. Five fights, five finishes, and not seeing a third round, this card should’ve been wrapped and packed 30-45 minutes sooner. Everything this week took twice as long as it needed to.
Much like their fighting roster, they need to build stars on their broadcast team. Keep some talent if you want, but it needs a big ol’ freshen up. Give some new people a chance. The fan base demanded it all show long. Take the rest of the year off and really take your time with how you want to move forward — and then book Francis Ngannou vs. Eddie Hall.
If Netflix gets behind this and is willing to spend big money, and the MVP-Netflix co-op can truly listen to what the fans want, this has a chance, but they have some very tough decisions to make. Don’t “disrupt.” Build a roster, give the sports what it really needs, and LISTEN TO THE FANS (the real fans, not the engagement farmers on Twitter).
Lee: Firstly, I think this will hit on the higher end with over 20 million viewers, so I’m forecasting off of that optimistic number. If that’s the case, they need to capitalize before the end of the year.
I fully agree there needs to be major overhauls when it comes to presentation (stop cosplaying as a boxing event!), and one of Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, or Francis Ngannou has to be available, otherwise the next event is probably dead on arrival. But if at least some of the stars can align again, Netflix has good bones to follow up with here.
Put Ngannou in there with Despaigne or Parker Porter or (PLEASE) Eddie Hall and build around that headlining act, and aim for November or December to put a capper on your first year of operation. MVP MMA is not a competitor to the UFC, and it doesn’t need to pretend it is, but it does need to maintain a presence in the combat sports space, and waiting another year is too long. Strike while the iron is moderately warm!
Martin: It’s almost impossible to tell because it felt like MVP threw everything at this debut card, and there just aren’t a lot of leftovers to sell another event in the near future. Ronda Rousey retired afterwards. Gina Carano sounded interested in possibly competing again, but it’s unlikely a fight against Holly Holm really moves the needle that much. Francis Ngannou nuked an overmatched opponent, and he could fight Robelis Despaigne, so that’s something, although it’s tough to imagine Netflix paying a boatload of money for that matchup. Options are so limited, MVP was already talking about running it back between Mike Perry and Nate Diaz, and that fight wasn’t even close!
Unless a whole bunch of top-level UFC fighters look at what MVP is paying and decide to jump ship, there just aren’t a lot of stars available to sell another card any time soon. Affliction MMA had an embarrassment of riches available back when they put on two shows and then folded, and MVP doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of talent pool to draw from now.
So until MVP announces a second marquee event, there’s just no telling if this thing thrives, much less survives.
Meshew: Unless this did truly horrific numbers, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a second event. Jake Paul and Co. talked too much trash about changing the industry to tuck tail and walk away after one. Now, they may not do 10 events, but we’ll at least get a second go around of these weirdo MMA experiment.
